Fishing is an ancient and worldwide practice with various techniques and traditions. The practice of catching or attempting to catch fish with a hook is known as angling. The hook is usually attached by a line to a fishing rod and can be dressed with lures or bait.
Several steps are necessary to manually tie a hook onto a fishing line. The end of the fishing line is inserted through the eye of the hook. Next, the end of the line is wrapped around a line going back to the reel (“reel line”) several times, forming twists. The end of the line is passed through a loop that exists between the eye of the hook and the twists. The end of the line is passed through a second loop that was created in the previous step. Then, a knot is formed by pulling the end of the line; the knot is slid down to the eye, and tightened by pulling the reel line. The end of the line is trimmed, resulting in a knot (or uni-knot).
Given the above description of manually tying a knot, it will be widely appreciated that tying a knot is a challenging undertaking, particularly for senior citizens having reduced visual acuity and dexterity, or for those having sustained significant hand injuries. In addition, fishermen fishing in the dark, in poor light conditions, or in cold weather, will have more difficulty hooking a line, with its many twists and loops.
It would therefore be advantageous if there were a handheld device for aiding in attaching a fishing line to a fishing hook.